The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gerard O’Grady’s appeal against the severity of sentences imposed for sexual assaults against two children, finding the sentences were within the available range.
The judgment, delivered by Birmingham P. on 13 February 2019, concerned offending between January 1982 and January 1985. O’Grady had received a six-year prison sentence with two years suspended and a concurrent four-year sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 6 March 2018.
The court said the offending took place while O’Grady was babysitting the children at their family home. He was aged between 16 and 19; the injured parties, identified as MD and JD, were younger. The judgment describes repeated abuse of MD and an incident involving anal penetration of JD. It also records threats made to prevent disclosure and threats concerning MD’s sisters. Both injured parties provided victim impact statements, and the court said the abuse had a significant, long-term impact on them.
At sentencing, the court heard about O’Grady’s family and employment history, hearing difficulties, childhood experiences, guilty pleas, apology and remorse. The sentencing judge considered his remorse genuine. On appeal, counsel argued that the sentences were “a little heavy”, pointing to O’Grady’s age at the time, the passage of time before complaints emerged in 2016 and the absence of contact with the injured parties during the intervening years.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the sentencing judge that the offending was at the higher level of seriousness. It cited the penetration, sustained abuse, young ages of the injured parties, breach of trust and threats as aggravating features. The court also acknowledged factors in O’Grady’s favour, including his record over the intervening years, family and employment circumstances, pleas, insight and remorse.
Although consecutive sentences were an option, the appeal court said the sentencing judge’s decision to make all sentences concurrent was “very much in ease of the appellant”. It was not persuaded that the sentences were excessively severe and dismissed the appeal. The court did not resentence O’Grady or alter the sentences.